The club was formed as the women's section of
FC Lyon in 1970. In 2004, the women's club became the women's section of Olympique Lyonnais. Since joining Lyon, the women's section has won the
Division 1 Féminine fourteen times and the
Coupe de France nine times. Lyon reached the semi-finals of the
2007–08 edition of the
UEFA Women's Cup and, during the
2009–10 season, reached
the final of the inaugural edition of the
UEFA Women's Champions League, losing to German club
Turbine Potsdam 7–6 on penalties. In the following season, Lyon finally captured the UEFA Women's Champions League, defeating its nemesis Turbine Potsdam 2–0 in the 2011 final. It successfully defended its title in 2012, defeating
FFC Frankfurt in the final. From 2016 to 2020, the club won five consecutive Champions League titles, equaling the male record held by
Real Madrid. Four players:
Sarah Bouhaddi,
Amel Majri,
Wendie Renard, and
Eugénie Le Sommer have all won eight Champions League trophies. They are listed by the
Guinness World Records as the "Most Women’s Champions League wins by a player". Lyon's main rivalry is with
Paris Saint-Germain, with matches between the two teams sometimes referred as the "Classique féminin". Paris is OL's main contender for national titles, as they finished in second place of
D1 Féminine seven times. Lyon had never lost the D1 title to PSG until 2021 when PSG finished ahead of Lyon, and won five
Coupe de France finals against Paris. In 2017 both teams reached the
Champions League final, with Lyon beating Paris after a penalty shoot-out and winning its fourth title in the competition. Lyon hosts its matches at the Stade Gérard Houllier, a stadium of capacity 1,524 located in the Groupama OL Training Center and situated not far from the larger
Parc Olympique Lyonnais (sometime called Groupama Stadium) where the male teams play. The women's team does host its "big" matches such as UEFA Women's Champions League at the 59,000-seat stadium. Often identified as the "tallest [woman] footballer",
Wendie Renard had been a long-term captain (and also of the France women's national football team) of the team, having one of the most prolific careers, including most titles won (with Le Sommer), most final appearance and top all-time appearances in the Campions League. According to the
UEFA women's coefficient, Lyon was the highest-ranked club in
UEFA in 2014, and second in 2025, behind
FC Barcelona Femení. As
Michele Kang took over the club in 2024, her immediate action was to have higher-capacity home ground. Groupama OL Training Center has only 1,200 seats. In the 2024-25 season, home matches were played at different cities like Bourg-en-Bresse, Grenoble, and Bourgoin-Jallieu. She negotiated with the
Lyon OU Rugby to share their home stadium, the
Matmut Stadium de Gerland, having a seating capacity of 25,000. However, she was able to convince the
OL Groupe to allow the use of Parc Olympique Lyonnais. On 19 May 2025, Kang announced that Parc Olympique Lyonnais will be their home ground from the following season, and that she had taken over the men's training centre, which she will transform into one that is "better than most men's teams's training centres." On 1 June 2025, the club announced the departure of head coach
Joe Montemurro, after one year of his contract. He leaves with a league title under his belt, to take up an opportunity with the
Australian women's national team. The following day, 2 June 2025, OL Lyonnes announced the appointment of
Jonatan Giráldez as their new head coach, on a contract until June 2028. == Club identity ==